Throne of Oak (Maggie's Grove) (10 page)

“
I’m fine
,
I
swear.
I’ve summoned Parker and Amara.
They’re on their way.
”

Well. That knowledge made him feel slightly better. His beast calmed at the sound of Amara’s name. Amara, as the hamadryad, would protect Mina as no other could, and Parker would protect Amara.

As his mind cleared of the budding rage, he noticed for the first time the smaller man seated between the two dryads. “
What is going on
,
my Mina?
Why are Greer and Ash here with a strange human?
”

“
Wait until Noah arrives.
Trust me.
He’ll need to hear this too.
Oh
,
and the boy is mine.
”

Dragos did his best not to growl at the stranger in his office. Greer and Ash had taken up guard positions around the young man, who looked ready to shake apart at the seams. His scent tickled Dragos’s nose, the acrid fear overlaid by something else, something vile. “
He’s a Van Helsing.
”

“
He led them away from us
,
Dragos.
Be nice.
He’s under my protection.
” When he heard her firm, regal tone he understood he was dealing with the Queen on this. Mina had taken the boy as her own, and Dragos could do nothing less.

He took a stronger whiff. Under the Van Helsing stink was something more. Something oddly familiar. “
It could be a trap.
”

“
It could
,
but I’ve bet both our lives that it isn’t.
The way he spoke of Iva before he even knew we were there leads me to believe he might be willing to help us.
”

Dragos shook his head. “
Very well
,
but as soon as I am done here I will come to you.
” His
sotiei
was in pain. It had woken him early from his day sleep and nearly sent him out into the early-evening sunlight. Only her assurances that she would be fine had kept him in the house, and now Greer and Ash and their little
present
had him trapped.

“
I
told you
,
I’m fine.
Listen to his story and judge for yourself.
Please
,
Dragos.
I’m asking you to trust me.
”

He could do no other. She demanded his trust, and he would give it. “
Very well
,
my
sotiei
.
”

“She’s all right. We wouldn’t have left her alone if she wasn’t.” Ash’s expression, as always, was serious. The man rarely laughed, barely smiled.

He’d always been the stoic one of the ruling dryads, but ever since he’d met Selena he’d been even more grave.

“Evening, Dragos.” He nodded at Greer’s cheerful greeting. If birch was calm, then Mina was fine. The last of his rage faded away. “By the way, where’s your Renfield? I thought for sure he would have been here to say hello.”

Ash grinned. “We’ve heard a lot about Eddy around town.”

Greer laughed. “Especially when we go to buy cookies.”

“He’s hiding.” From what Dragos could gather, he’d been hiding since yesterday, when he’d run from Trajan and somehow managed to elude the dragon shifter.

Trajan had been impressed.

Dragos had been without his Renfield.

“From what?”

Dragos smiled at Ash’s obvious willingness to defend his Renfield. “Trajan.”

The tension in Ash’s posture eased. “Oh. There’s no sense in running from a mate.”

“Unless you’ve believed all your life that you’re heterosexual and your mate turns out to be a man.”

Ash blinked. “That might be a reason, yes.”

Greer laughed. “He must have gone through an entire supermarket aisle of cookies by now.”

Dragos nodded. “I’m dreading the Sav-a-Lot bill this month.”

The three men chuckled, ignoring the increasingly confused expression on the Van Helsing’s face. “But... I thought that...”

Dragos scowled at the boy. “You thought what?”

The boy gulped, his eyes going wide, his face pale. “I thought that—”

“Dragos, don’t hurt him!” Eddy raced into the room, throwing himself over the Van Helsing like an overly dramatic heroine in a romance novel. “He’s ours!”

Dragos’s brows rose as he watched the antics of his Renfield. “I’m sure Trajan will be interested in hearing that.”

Eddy rolled his eyes like Dragos was simply the stupidest thing he’d run across since they’d played
Robot Jox
at Monster Movie Night.

Dragos shuddered. Never. Again. Not even if they MST3K’d it. When even the earth elementals didn’t have the patience to sit through a movie, it was
bad
. When Dom switched the second reel over to
My Little Pony:
Friendship is Magic
and people cheered, it was worse.

And what the fuck was a Brony, anyway? Gods, sometimes he felt old.

“Dragos, pay attention.”

Dragos shifted his attention back to his Renfield, who scowled at him as if he’d done something wrong.

“He’s
ours
. He’s psychic.”

Dragos blinked, reassessing the Van Helsing tied to the chair. That must have been the familiar scent he’d picked up. If the boy was meant to be in Maggie’s Grove, he’d smell like home, like one of Dragos’s. “You mean...?”

“He belongs here.” Eddy slowly straightened, smiling down at Blake in that easy way he had when he really liked someone. “Hey. I’m Eddy.”

“Blake Truillo.” The boy was breathless, and still pale as milk. He was scared shitless, and Dragos had done nothing to ease him.

“It’s okay.” Eddy’s grin had won over harder hearts than the Van Helsing’s. “Trust me, you’re going to like it here.”

“Ah.” Blake shot a wild, wary look at Dragos. “Sure. If you say so.”

Eddy ignored the fear in Blake’s expression and began untying him. “What’s your talent?”

“My what?” Blake watched Eddy untie him, his expression turning more and more perplexed.

“Your talent. You know, your gift? I’m a psychometrist. I can feel things from objects and people—like emotions—and sometimes I even get visions from them. If they’re strong enough they can actually hurt. I know someone else who’s a physical medium. He can speak to and touch ghosts. He’s marrying his boyfriend in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be beautiful, even if we can only see one of the grooms.” Eddy stood up and brushed off his hands. “There. All free. So, give. What’s your talent?”

Blake rubbed absently at his wrists, his eyes wide and a little wild. “I...” He licked his lips and stared once more at Dragos before turning back to Eddy. “I can sense supernaturals.”

“Shit. That’s how you knew Mina was behind that tree.” Greer was staring at Blake in horror. “How many Van Helsings have that ability?”

“I don’t know.” Blake flinched as Ash shifted, obviously expecting a blow. “I don’t! My dad, he...he sometimes has visions, and Mr. Carpenter—” Blake whimpered in fear.

“Shh. They won’t hurt you, I promise.” Eddy took hold of Blake’s hands. “Ignore them. Tell me.”

“Let. Him. Go.”

Eddy paled. “Fuck me stupid.”

“Not yet, but I’m planning on it.” Trajan strolled into the room, smirking at Eddy. “Now let him go,
dragule
, before I eat him.”

Greer leaned over and whispered loudly into Eddy’s ear. “I don’t think he means that in the good way.”

Eddy grinned weakly, but he did let go of Blake’s hands. “I thought you weren’t allowed in here without Noah’s permission?”

Trajan’s wince was barely noticeable. “I had forgotten that.”

“I hadn’t.” Trajan’s head flew forward, the man nearly knocked off his feet as Noah Wulfenbach strolled into the room. His gaze was glued to Blake, his nostrils flaring as he scented the Van Helsing. “Well, well. What have we here?” He licked his lips, his gaze hard and hungry.

“Don’t eat me, don’t eat me!” Blake scrambled to his feet and dove under the desk.

Eddy shook his head. “Poor kid. Don’t you hate it when they do that?”

Dragos just stared at him. He had to be kidding, right?

A wet sniffle brought his attention back to the boy under his desk. And really, that was all he was—a boy, maybe eighteen at the most, and terrified out of his wits. Now that Dragos could ignore the Van Helsing stink—a mixture of gun oil, incense and animal piss—his fear was unmistakable. They thought they were hiding their scent from the supernaturals by using sprays meant to confuse deer.

Unfortunately for them, shifters weren’t deer, and were rarely fooled for long.

“Come on out. We promised you wouldn’t get hurt, remember?” Greer parked himself on top of Dragos’s desk, completely ignoring the pile of paper he knocked to the floor. He bent at the waist until his head was below the level of the desk. “Hi.”

Trajan moved until he was standing next to Eddy, his brows rising in surprise. “Flexible, isn’t he?”

Eddy scowled at him.

Trajan smirked down at Eddy, who blushed and looked away.

Dragos rolled his eyes. He needed to lock the two of them in a room just so they’d get it over with.

Another watery sniff brought him back to the Van Helsing under his desk. “Hi.”

“Don’t worry, Blake. The nasty werewolf isn’t going to bite you.”

A muffled whimper was Greer’s only answer.

Noah growled in frustration. “You’re covered in skunk piss. Would
you
bite something covered in that?”

A dark, tousled head slowly appeared around the edge of the desk. “No.”

Noah shook his head, his demeanor slowly changing. The boy obviously needed protection, and Noah’s alpha instincts were apparently surging to the fore. Dragos watched as the big, bad alpha took in the boy’s appearance and adjusted his stance accordingly. He relaxed, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders no longer tense. He even smiled. “I won’t hurt you. I just want to know where my friends are.”

“You’re the alpha werewolf.”

Noah blinked slowly, but to his credit he remained relaxed. “Yes.”

Blake darted a glance at Eddy, who nodded encouragingly.

Greer held out his hand. “C’mon, I’m getting a crick in my neck and you’re disturbing Dragos’s impressive collection of dust bunnies.”

Dragos opened his mouth but Noah shook his head, silencing him. The boy slowly scuttled out from behind the desk, still pale, his cheeks blotchy with tears. “You’re not like they said you’d be.”

“Yeah. Van Helsings suck, man.” Eddy took hold of Blake’s hand again and settled him in the chair he’d bolted out of. “They think we’re monsters.”

Blake nodded. “They know what I can do. It’s why my dad brought me in.”

“Who’s your father, Blake?” Dragos kept his tone easy, not wanting to scare the boy any further.

Huge, teary brown eyes stared up at him. “Nelson Rhodes.”

Noah cursed under his breath. “The second in command of the Van Helsings.”

Blake’s brows drew together in confusion. “Van Helsings?”

“The ones who hunt us.”

The boy nodded. “Oh. We call ourselves the Knights of Hercules.”

“Ah.” Dragos leaned back against his desk, hoping to put the boy at ease. “I’d forgotten that.” Everyone but Trajan and Blake looked at him, waiting for an explanation. “Long ago, during the Dark Ages, the Van Helsings first banded together to stop the rampages of a few of us who’d decided that the humans were no longer capable of ruling themselves. Between the black plague, the Inquisition and the rampant starvation, I’m not sure I blame them.” Dragos held up his hands as the others started to protest. “However, no supernatural has the right to rule over humans, only ourselves. That law has always been, and shall always be. In our attempts to stop our wayward brethren we brought unwanted attention on ourselves. The humans retaliated, finding us in our lairs and trying to destroy us. In the end, the Knights of Hercules was formed, first under the aegis of the Catholic Church, but later the Church disavowed them. Their tactics were considered too ruthless, even for the times, and when we managed to convert some of them the Church felt the entire order was compromised. They were officially disbanded, but unofficially they only grew stronger in their conviction that all supernaturals were spawns of their Satan.”

“They were Templars?” Eddy sounded fascinated.

Dragos shook his head. “The Templars had another duty.” One he did not believe in—but they had, giving their lives in their belief that a single cup could hold divinity. It was an illusion at best, but he’d seen humans do far more foolish things in the pursuit of immortality.

“Why don’t we know any of this?” Noah was frowning, watching Blake’s reactions. The boy had relaxed as Dragos related the Van Helsings’ history, as if he’d expected Dragos to tell a different tale than the one he knew and had been pleasantly surprised when Dragos didn’t.

“We do. We’re just so used to calling them Van Helsings the old name has been forgotten among us.” He turned back to Blake. “Nelson Rhodes is psychic?”

“Yes, sir.” Blake gulped. “He says its humanity’s response to the monsters, and that we have to use it to defeat them or they’ll overrun us.” His gaze darted to Eddy and he swallowed hard, his expression crestfallen. “But we’re the monsters, aren’t we?”

Eddy grimaced, but didn’t answer. “Why isn’t your last name Rhodes?”

“He never married my mom, so I’ve got her last name. When she died, he came and got me.”

“Are you sure he’s your dad?” Eddy’s voice remained soft, soothing.

Blake shrugged. “Yeah, I look just like him.”

“Who is Mr. Carpenter?”

Blake winced at Ash’s harshly worded question, but his gaze stayed glued to Eddy. “Harold Carpenter runs the local group of hunters. He became aware of Maggie’s Grove about eight months ago. He scouted it out before sending someone to take his first
subject
.” That last was said with such disgust Dragos almost found it in him to feel sorry for the boy.

Dragos crouched down until he was eye level with Blake. If they terrified the boy they wouldn’t get the answers they needed. “Why did he take Iva?”